82 THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 



there are some singular links of union between us. 

 Izaak Walton was born in the country ; so was I. 

 Izaak Walton dwelt in the purlieus of St. Dunstan's, 

 Fleet Street, for more than fifty years ; so have I. 

 He was a vestryman of St. Dunstan's for many 

 years ; so was I. And have I not in spirit wafted 

 myself back for two hundred and fifty years or so 

 and met him at the corner of Chancery Lane, fully 

 equipped, on a fine May morning, with basket and 

 rod, for an angling expedition to the Lea .' I have 

 already told the story of that most delightful 

 outing on which I accompanied him ; ^ and how 

 pleased he was when I told him that I had just 

 finished reading his first edition of " The Compleat 

 Angler " ; that a copy of that little book which he 

 published at one shilling and sixpence is now worth 

 five hundred pounds, that more than a hundred 

 editions have since been published, and what 

 pleased him most of all was to learn that the 

 one hundredth edition had been issued from well- 

 nigh the same spot in the parish of St. Dunstan's 

 as that from which was issued the first edition by 

 Richard Marriott in 1653. 

 Then there are other links that bind us. Have 



1 See " Days in Clover," by the Amateur Angler. Letter • 

 No. 3. 



